Fabio Costa Seminar

Last weekend I had a chance to attend my first JiuJitsu seminar. The instructor was Carlos Gracie Blackbelt, Fabio Costa, and he was top notch. There were about 30 of us in the nogi class. Thankfully, 8th street has plenty of mat space so we were not at all crowded. The format looked like this:

1. Warm Up & Stretching

2. Clinch Work:
-leg trip (pull the arm in, force opponent to step in, hook the leg, step behind)
-leg trip (pull the arm in, hook the leg, step in front)
-ankle pick (circle towards the clinch hand, hook the near leg, step behind the far leg, ankle pick)
-leg trip (circle towards the clinch hand, trip them with my lead leg)
-leg sweep / throw (when sweep fails, pendulum kick leg through then back)

3. Groundwork:
-armbar escape (hitch hiker thumb, hand on ankle, push opponents legs towards my feet while rotating my body towards my head, ear to opponents thigh, clinch head, move into side control)
-armbar escape (hitch hiker thumb, trap opponents legs between mine, other leg behind my head, roll into side control
-armbar escape from top (clinch head, stack, bicep to hand, free hand to hamstring, shake arm free, tightly pass to side control)
-Sweep from guard (knees together, post up straight into armbar)

4. Extra Items I Learned:
-cup head in clinch, not neck
-stand up in clinch using my height to my advantage
-arm bar: the arm is easy, its the legs that are difficult to master
-do not cross feet in arm bar from the mount. foot curls head, other foot under the arm and pinch the knees together
-arm bar from guard, same side wrist control, opposite side hand goes on opponents tricep, same side foot goes on hip, opposite side leg goes across back.

5. Cool down

This was an outstanding seminar! I was fortunate to drill each of my techniques with Matt, a purple belt under Professor Costa. He understood the techniques well, and drills with an intensity that matches my own. Many of the extra things noted above I learned from him.

Professor Costa was very friendly and approachable. Before the class started he asked us to be proactive with our questions. I took that to heart and asked many more than many. He smiled with each question and never once failed to provide a sufficient answer, even going so far as to jump in and do things hands on with me or my partner, so I could see what he was trying to teach. I would attend one of his seminars again for sure. If his classes at Gracie Barra are as concise as his seminar, I can see how Gracie Barra can promote an effective martial arts system, in a franchise environment.

Professor Costa is also a proponent of the gi. He says it is the foundation for all grappling. This impresses me because he has a respectable MMA record, as well as no-gi and gi, grappling titles. Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to roll with him; Which was probably for the better as I was having a hard time following the third guideline from a Cavemans Guide to Successful JiuJitsu class. I did however get a chance to watch Matt and Professor Fabio roll. Fabio approached the roll in a way that I have NEVER seen before. He immediately allowed Matt to go to side control. Throughout the 20-30 minutes that I watched them, he allowed Matt to move into dominant position after dominant position, and attempt as many submissions as Matt could find to try. It was obvious that Fabio never felt threatened and was very comfortable in all positions. I also think his approach builds a different mentality in the student. It allows them to think much more offensively, even though they are facing a superior opponent. This is opposite to the effect that smashing opponents in each roll has on them. In other words he never broke Matt's will. Others might have, and in turn inadvertently done their student a disservice.

I digress, the techniques I learned in this seminar were extremely applicable. The clinch work was mostly new for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was not converted to a die hard Gracie JiuJitsu follower. But I was convinced that training in a gi can do nothing except improve my nogi game.